Mission on Aquas
by DevilsArcadia777
Summary: A one-shot glimpse at the Aquas mission from Star Fox 64, with plot-driven words by yours truly.  Please review.


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_**The Mission on Aquas**_

_By DevilsArcadia777_

-**Story: **A potential re-telling of the Aquas mission in Star Fox 64, featuring the battle against the bioweapon Bacoon.

**-Rating: T**

**-Disclaimer: **I own none of this franchise (dammit :()

Setting: Lylat System, the Lylat Wars

**This was the prologue to a story I had in mind, but I ultimately didn't pull through with it, because I...pretty much had no idea what the hell I was doing (giggles). I'm actually fond of this text, though, so I'm going to release it as a stand-alone story instead and make it my first Star Fox fic-a test drive, so to speak...so, enjoy.**

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_All that existed, as far as the eye could see, was the great vortex that bore the threshold of life and death, the ocean. The ocean, ranging in all shades of blue, had amassed the entire planet of Aquas, causing it to truly reflect its name compared to years prior. _

_This saline mass of water hosts lesser marine life ranging from mollusks to sharks, and all of them are pivotal players in Aquas' role as a living biomass. By contrast, however, as saline as the ocean was, the vast quantity of the element "Oxys," otherwise known as oxygen, in conjunction with other elements, allowed intelligent aquatic life to dwell within the depths. All was well, until that dreaded day…_

_What few masses of land existed on the planet were submerged by the incredible mass of a gargantuan bivalve, transformed into a "Bioweapon" by the notorious Dr. Andorf E. Andross, who had submerged the Lylat System into a dreaded war._

_The clam's transformation into a weapon began with genetic splicing of the chromosomes, followed by implanting a series of nanobots inside the already-massive creature. The creature could accelerate its process of forming pearls from calcium carbonate and produce them like clockwork into weapons. On top of its shell were implanted barnacle creatures attached via prosthetic tools. With some spare handiwork, the barnacles became a part of the clam itself and could fire projectiles made of peculiar acids and solids. These weapons were what made "Bacoon" devastate Aquas as a whole, polluting the oceans, sinking the landmasses, and infecting the lesser life forms, causing the sentient ones to evacuate…_

…_which would all end within mere moments when the savior of Lylat, the Star Fox team, had come on to the scene with their aquatic assault submarine, the "Blue Marine."_

_Piloting the sluggish blue sub with relative ease, the young vulpine, Fox McCloud, diligently surfed beneath the ocean waves across at least a third of the planet's surface area until the radar began to pick up signs of a massive life form…_

"_Ah…" _

_The vulpine's determined and stoic expression cracked when he could visibly see a giant brownish mass sleeping nearby a hydraulic vent wedged between two large reefs, both of them toting the remains of dead coral and the carcasses of marine life._

"_Do you copy! I found the Bioweapon!" he shouted via his headgear to his fellow teammates, Slippy Toad and Peppy Hare, who were patrolling in a tracking sub on the surface a ways off._

_The mollusk did not move, but the barnacles on top of it emitted a small helping of a greenish acid. Fox turned on the underwater camcorder to capture an image of it. The acid creeped its way onto a nearby starfish…_

…_and the second it made contact with it, the lesser creature was encased in it, infected…the result was a starfish that could shoot the acid into matter akin to a laser…_

"_THIS is the source of the pollution…we need to destroy it!" a ticked Slippy raised his small arms in anger. "I'll analyze it right away!"_

_This creature was massive, thought Fox, but in order to end Aquas' suffering, he had to provoke it into a fight. Inhaling nervously, he fired a homing torpedo, which landed squarely onto the top half of Bacoon's shell._

_An exaggerated "crack" vibrated in the ocean waves, and the impact was hard enough to awaken the Bioweapon. Suddenly, as if the gates of Hell themselves were opening, Bacoon opened its shell, revealing the flames inside-a pair of massive tendons, protecting a soft interior and a menacing, incandescent eye… _

_The rude awakening processed a series of signals within Bacoon's dilapidated nervous system, which all printed into one result: destroy the source of the disturbance. It carefully maneuvered its fluorescent eye to detect the dark pit, eventually eying the Blue Marine. The acidic colors of the eye startled poor Fox as the gaze met the clam's-_

_The eerie pupils and colors reminded him of stories he had learned as a kit of the last moments before death caused by substances used for biological warfare…_

_The fox would have fallen into fear and go through urinary incontinence if his brash co-pilot Falco Lombardi did not launch a torpedo aimed squarely at Bacoon's eye. The action snapped Fox from his trance, and he inhaled his fears and prepared to fight._

"_Enemy shield analyzed! Bringing it up on the monitor!" Slippy's voice projected from Fox's headgear, noting Bacoon's reserve strength on a computer-monitor next to the camcorder recording screen. The shield's reserve was shown to have dropped slightly-the torpedo bought Bacoon pain._

_This queer object threatened Bacoon, and it knew it could not die. Instantly, it clamped shut and ignited the weaponry of the four barnacles on top. The barnacles spat out acid and fine solids from their pipes, working in tandem with objects that resembled pearls. They snaked toward the Blue Marine, making forced contact on the left wing!_

"_Gah! Dammit Fox, pull yourself together!" Falco projected from the co-pilot's seat. Fox merely shot a glare as he glided past the onslaught of pearls. Fox utilized four torpedoes and prepped their launch-_

"…_vertical adjust, thirty-two degrees…"_

_**/PPIPIIPI/**_

"_Horizontal adjust…minus eight degrees…"_

_**/PIIIPII/**_

"_Launch!"_

_A lob of active-homing torpedoes was sent off in a straight line toward the four barnacles, all of them brilliantly streaming in a wave of bubbles-_

_Wham! T__he compressed weapons made blunt impact onto the four barnacles-one had severed, creating a cloud of reddish smog among the barnacle's torn ligaments. The other three were still holding firm, and began pumping rapidly…_

_Fox had to re-set the coordinates for his next plot of torpedoes quickly-the barnacles had spawned a trail of aquatic creatures that resembled pearls. One came in contact with the hard surface of the Blue Marine-_

_-an explosion!-_

_-and clipped off a piece of the wing on its starboard side. Fox and Falco nearly tipped over inside from the violent blast._

"_Fox! Why are you so reluctant! Attack that damn thing!" Falco screamed, annoyed. The end tail of another creature cracked the bow of the sluggish ship._

"_Then help me in navigating over that thing and stop whining, Falco! Are you really that big of an ass!" Fox was furious! Falco's eyes widened in shock..._

"_Idiots! Don't lose it!" Peppy screamed in his veteran's voice over Fox and Falco's headgear sets. They cringed-another chunk of the Blue Marine damaged-and instinctively prepped to fight back._

"_Adjusting…minus three degrees vertical…fire!"_

_ Fox launched three more torpedoes, this time without actively guiding them out of sheer desperation. All of them dented the barnacles and severed them, tipping off of the shell like sludge…_

"_Yeah! It's working!" Falco fixed himself to the life-readings of Bacoon-it fell slightly._

_Fox carefully maneuvered the Blue Marine back several feet to clear from the barnacles, all of them having collapsed in blood. Bacoon itself stirred-_

_-the "first line of defense" has been breached-_

_-and yet maintained defensive-_

_-even with nervous signals that had been frayed, the simplest of what intelligence it had and the most complex of instincts it was given shook into its neurological circuitry and forced the result-it remained shut._

_Falco spat onto the floor. "We can't break through that shell-not with the lasers or with any of the three torpedo types we have…not even those…err, the 222-Squall torpedoes…uhh…"_

"_Yeah, yeah, I get it. Even with the speed it fires at, the Squall types won't hit…" Fox's response was surprisingly adolescent for the state he was in. _"_I guess we rise up a little until it moves again. With the damage we have right now, the pressure of the sea could cause the Blue Marine to blow up…"_

_Falco cranked his neck and sneered, giving off that same cocky grin he was known for. _"_As I said…this thing'll never-"_

_- /Crash!/ A propeller piece flew off!_

"_What the hell!"_

_Bacoon's systems ran once more! All it desired was to destroy the thing hurting it. The weapon exposed its tender insides to launch its second set of weapons-pearls._

"_What hit us!" Falco shouted in a huff. _

_Floating before him was said object-a massive pearl, partially chipped from contact with the propeller piece…_

"_A pearl! That can't be a pearl, right Fox!" He pointed stupidly at said pearl._

"_No…" Fox seethed in shock. He recorded the object and took a closer look-its luster, its color, its whiteness..._

_"It…it really does look like a pearl…"_

"_B-but…doesn't it take, like…a jillion years for pearls to form?" Falco scratched his head._

_Bacoon below, meanwhile, gathered its surplus sources of calcium carbonate gratuitously granted to it. These engines were the catalysts that sped the process of the pearl formation literally twenty-fold_…_and with a hard solid compound coming in hefty amounts, they could now be larger than life and harder than rock…_

"_Fox!"_

_Fox set the capacity of the submarine's propulsion systems to their limits and forced it out of the onslaught of pearls. Even with Lylat's current state of technological marvels, no sub like the Blue Marine could exceed the speed of twenty-five knots, nor could any engineer ever dream of allowing one to drift easily in a horizontal direction and back. The sub was forced behind a rift of solid rock as the pearls began to scatter._

"_Is there any way to approach it at all?" Falco observed the images of Bacoon taken by the camcorder. Only mere seconds after the wave of pearls was he able to catch images of it exposing itself._

"_Take a look at its insides-anywhere in there's probably where we can destroy it…" _

_Fox took a good look at the blurry images. From what he could see, there was a cluster of a flesh-like mass in front of that almost-psychedelic eye he had first seen, complete with two pillars that appeared similar to a set of tendons in a higher organism's leg. _

"_With all of the calcium it needs to form those pearls, and at that ungodly rate…"_

_Fox put his fist under his chin, catching from the corner of his eye another set of pearls. _"…_its inner shell would be notoriously irritated-that's how pearls come about initially…"_

_Falco bobbed his head in forced agreement._

"…_so this flesh…he probably placed it in there to ease the process…or maybe it came about from the bioengineering process?"_

_Falco raised his arms in impatience._

"_Well, whatever it may be, we gotta attack when it opens up. The eye is probably where it hurts."_

"_How can you tell?"_

"_Every time, Foxy…"_

_Falco took out several images that were recorded in a succession of sequences._

"_Every time there's something that needs protection, the creature protects it…"_

_He placed his feathery index finger on an image where, in front of Bacoon's eye, was a large patch of meaty flesh protecting it like a wall._

"…_this meat-thing is shielding the eye. I think when it opened up for the first time, after it spotted us...it shielded its eye. Isn't it obvious?"_

_Fox scoffed at his co-pilot's callous demeanor, but he was on to something. They would have to risk losing the Blue Marine and attack Bacoon when it re-opened. From the sonar, the latest string of pearls (represented as a cluster of red dots) had moved out of range. The vulpine had to do what Peppy-and his deceased father-had told him so many times…_

…_to trust one's instincts…and this time, it truly had to count._

_-S-_

_All of the torpedoes had been prepped for unguided launch for a full-blown assault against all of Bacoon's flesh. All of the torpedoes would mutilate said flesh while the specialty lasers would be used to damage the eye. Falco could see from the camcorder that the weapon had closed itself again; thus the opportunity was taken for him and Fox to repair some damages, at least from the inside… _

_Every minute felt like an eternity, but every minute here was as pivotal as life support for a dying patient. Because of its external location, the propeller broken by the pearl remained broken, sadly. Bacoon was hesitating-a good chance to resurface…_

_If for nothing else, the Blue Marine's batteries could recharge by coming to the surface. Peppy and Slippy's small ship caught up to the stealth sub, with the sole thing they could do being to watch and wait. __The majority of the systems within were as optimal as they could be-all of the ship's oxygen within was given via electrolysis without problems, the oxygen bank was removing all of the toxic gases that could prove fatal, the batteries themselves were not damaged…_

"_Any interior damage we have has to be put aside until we kill that thing…sorry, Slip…the Blue Marine's going to have a long nap in the repair shop after this…" Fox sheepishly scratched his nose, blushing lightly with shame._

_The bull frog, acting with his usual happy demeanor, could only smile at his best friend's efforts. "You do what you have to do, Fox."_

"_Slippy…"_

_The frog pumped out his chest, punching it with determination. "I'm the son of the greatest damn mechanic in the Lylat System, and I have his skills! The Blue Marine'll be good as new-providing you get it back to me at least…" His smile waned slightly._

"…" _Fox's face saddened out of guilt._

"_Don't you worry your pudgy ass, Slip. We'll come through. Sheesh." Falco rubbed his forehead, somewhat annoyed. Slippy shot his tongue at the bird._

"_Bah! No arguing!" the veteran accent of Peppy Hare interjected once more. "The battery's reaching its full charge…I think you can head back down." His retort became calm._

_Fox saluted his mentor. "Will do. We're submerging again, Falco!"__ Soon enough, the Blue Marine went beneath the waves._

_Peppy motioned at Slippy to get back into the navigation ship. With Fox and Falco dealing the final blow, there was little they could do now…_

"_I think I'll change the engine of the Blue Marine when-if, rather…this war is over…diesel engines and fuel are out of date…" Slippy rubbed his head._

"_Everything has its use, Slippy. Carbine weaponry is considered 'old-fashioned.' Well then, explain to me why Special Ops and assassins use them still." Peppy's face flaunted his wisdom and age._

_Slippy smiled. "Yeah…but I think it'll work better, ya know?"_

"_Yes, I hear you." _

_But none of that was significant. A diesel engine was all Space Dynamics could grab at the time to create the sub, and for now, Slippy had to play his cards for it in order for his birth world to be rescued…_

_-S-_

_The Blue Marine had re-entered the fray, and so had Bacoon-it re-opened, ready to brawl with the sub!_

"_Well, Fox? Know what you're doing this time!" Falco retorted._

"_Of course! And it's 'cause of you, even if your attitude sucks!" _

_Fox began the launch of the unguided missiles at Bacoon's wall of flesh-_

_**/BWOOM! BWOOM!/**_

_-It let out a massive cry!-_

_-Red smog-blood-fogged the seas-_

_-and the flesh disintegrated…like another of many of the ocean's dead corpses…_

…_from within, as if stung by mind-altering drugs, was the rainbow eye, its pupils dilated in pure, blind rage…_

"_Fox!"_

_Fox's brief trance shattered. As the adrenaline took over, he pulled the Blue Marine forward and began like a manic mantra, to fire the sub's superheated lasers right onto the eye!_

_The eye turned blackest pitch. The pupil slimmed to the shape of a needle. Bits of its cornea flew, revealing the blood within. But despite this, Bacoon's response was a thundering current!_

"_Gaaaaaaah! What is thi-!"_

_A group of pearls rushed with a force so intense that it blew the Blue Marine back. Fox and Falco went flying, slamming into the rear of the cockpit-_

"_Agh!"_

"_Shi-!"_

_Falco cringed, his shoulder bleeding from the impact. Fox attained a large bump on the head and a bloody snout, but was otherwise fine himself._

…_but what wasn't fine wa that the oxygen tanks were dented, losing air!_

"_What th-! Fox!"_

_Falco motioned his leader at the tanks. "We're so fucked right now…"_

_Fox cursed inwardly, but the destruction of Bacoon was priority one. The air was leaking rather slowly anyhow…he had to risk it._

_The waves of the ocean helped push the sub forward..._

_Through the push, Fox violently shot the lasers at all pieces of Bacoon's flesh! Anything to rip it dry!_

_The tendons fell, then the eye's wall soon followed. Bacoon's eye was swirling and burning red! With the soothing flesh all gone, an onslaught of pearls, no matter how painful, had to grasp its victory-!_

_But Fox did not falter, despite the decreasing e air. He frantically launched all that he could against the heartless beast-the eye began to bleed profusely, its life signals dropped-_

_**/BSHHH!/**_

_-at last-beyond all possible thought-_

_-Bacoon the bioweapon had fallen apart-_

_-red smog-_

_-blood-_

_-pearls scattering-_

_-a broken shell-_

_-nerves frayed-_

_-life terminated-_

_-a failed resurrection-_

_-eternal damnation-_

_-hatred… . . . . . . . _

_-S-_

_Oxygen was running low. Together, the red fox and the blue falcon resurfaced, both of them desperate for fresh air. To their fortune, in addition to the tracking ship being nearby, the dreadnought Great Fox was in the air a ways off…_

"_Fox!" Slippy popped up from his tracking sub. "ROB!" Slippy communicated to the robot aboard the ship. " Descend, now!" _

"_AFFIRMATIVE."_

_The monotonous robot descended at least several meters above the ocean, avoiding having any of its waters catch into its engines. A life boat was deployed, and the Blue Marine -a hideous mess- and the tracking sub were bought to the repair dock on board. The four wingmen were placed onto a small motor boat._

_Falco, though dizzy and ailing, was able to adjust to the air outside after a few minutes. Fox, on the other hand, was gasping- the blood in his snout that was leaking had gone back down his throat as he lied down…_

"_We need to get him somewhere safe-he needs fresh air…" Peppy worriedly tried to ease his best friend's son, who he had loved equally as such…_

_Slippy glanced about the endless void of an ocean. He hopped excitedly as he, without warning, drove the boat directly into the direction of what looked like the top of a circular island, having survived the great flood. The other three stumbled back, with Falco shouting a slur of "f-bombs" at the frog…_

_-S-_

_After a few minutes, the small isle was reached. It was in near-pristine condition-while the isle itself was only roughly ten meters in diameter, the sand was stark white, just like the pearls Bacoon had mass-produced. A palm tree, still vivid and standing firm, was able to provide some shade from the glittering sparkle of Solar's and Lylat's rays. _

"_Wow…"_

_The awestruck Slippy glanced ahead at the gem of an ocean, now ridden of its source of pain. It was bluer than the bluest, clearest gems, giving the sky an equally blue color that lifted the spirit. In the dark hellhole of the Lylat Wars, a beacon of blue light finally pierced into its bottom. _

"_It's beautiful…"_

_Peppy, having removed his hefty trench coat-like jacket, stood beside the young frog. "It'll take time for recovery, but the pollution isn't that severe, fortunately…"_

_The hare stretched his scarred, strong arms, easing his back. He glanced at the young frog, noticing him become giddy…_

"_Slip? What is it?"_

"_It's a bit dirty but…I'm going for a swim!"_

_And without warning, Slippy, in a rather comedic fashion, tore off his coat, his flight suit, and everything else and charged, buck naked, into the blue ocean!_

"_Yippeee-!"_

_**/SPLASH!/**_

_The frog laughed cheerily as he swam incredibly graceful strokes along the shoreline, avoiding straying away from the island. Peppy could only laugh, for he, too, decided to enjoy their small siesta._

"_Is Slippy…skinny-dipping!"_

_Falco, eyes bulging, pointed at the cheery frog as he stood boldly, nude, onto a shallow part of the ocean…_

"_Hey, we're all men here…why don't you take a swim too?" Peppy removed his own flight suit and undergarments and slowly descended into the sea._

_Falco was rather shocked by his fellow wingmen's casual skinny-dipping, but soon enough, he needed to cool down. He followed suit by skinny-dipping himself…_

_-S-_

_Fox had been asleep and retaining steady breathing for a while, but soon enough, he, too, took on the skinny-dip party. He needed his mind to be off the war, even for only an hour or so…_

"_Take this-!" _

_With a fist, Fox sent a wave of water into Slippy's and Falco's eyes. They playfully retorted, with Falco occasionally tackling the other two, despite his shoulder injury. _

"_Hey, Falco-!"_

_Peppy was lounging on the beach by some fruit, having put his suit back on and watching blissfully at the three teenage anthros. Soon, this bliss would end, but whatever orders General Pepper had in store for them did not matter right now…_

_As for the three youths, this bliss was just as joyous…_

_This war would soon take its toll in a more gruesome fashion in the near future, and the three teenagers had to burn away their innocence for the sake of a galaxy..._

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That's all. I've edited it, and hopefully it's readable and enjoyable. Thanks for reading!

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******FOOTNOTES**

-The "Squall" torpedo used was inspired by the Russian VA-111 Shkval (Russian for "squall", or storm, thus the name) torpedo, a slim torpedo capable of reaching speeds of 200 knots and is able to be launched underwater. Their speed is possible due to a process known as supercavitation.


End file.
